PULMONATA. 71 



Genus 7th. Bulimus.* Scqpoli, 1786. 



Bulimus, Brug., 1792; Lam., 1801. 

 Cochlea, Adanson, 1757. 

 Cochlostyla, F6russac. 



Gen. Char. — Shell oval, oblong, or turriculated, smooth, or longitudinally striated ; 

 spire obtuse, variable in length and in the number of the whorls, which are generally 

 few, and for the most part sinistral ; aperture entire, oval, rounded anteriorly ; outer 

 lip simple, generally reflected and confluent with the columella ; inner lip reflected 

 over the body whorl ; columella smooth. 



This genus, originally proposed by Scopoli, was adopted by Bruguiere, and extended 

 so as to comprise animals essentially different in their organisation ; many genera 

 have, in consequence, been since separated from it by Draparnaud, Lamarck, and 

 others. The animal closely resembles that of Helix ; but M. Deshayes states that it 

 presents a modification of the organs of generation sufficient for generic distinction. 

 The shells may be known from the Helices by their more elongated spiral form ; from 

 the Limneete by the smooth columella, and from Pupa by the more regularly tapering 

 spire. 



The genus contains very many living species distributed over the equatorial, 

 tropical, and warm temperate regions, as well of the new, as of the old, world. 

 According to Mr. Lovell Reevef the localities of nearly 600 species have been 

 ascertained ; and of these, three fifths inhabit the western hemisphere, principally 

 central America ; and a large proportion, rather more than one third, of the remaining 

 species is found in the Phillippine Islands. 



Several fossil species, from the Freshwater deposits of the Paris Basin, have been 

 described by MM. Brard, Brogniart, Lamarck, Defrance, Matheron, and Deshayes ; 

 and two distinct species (B. ellipticus, Sow., and B.politus, nov. spec.,) occur in the 



* The etymology of this word is not ascertained. Adanson in 1757, in his ' Histoire Naturelle du 

 Senegal,' applied the name Bulinus to a species of the shells which afterwards formed part of Drapernaud's 

 genus Physa, but which have since been separated by Dr. Leach, under the generic name Aplexus ; and the 

 writer of the article " Limneans," in the 'Penny Cyclopaedia,' suggests, and apparently with much proba- 

 bility, that the word Bulimus was used by mistake by Scopoli and Bruguiere for Bulircus. Studer seems 

 to consider Bulimus to have been intentionally substituted for Bulinus, and says that the alteration is 

 altogether inadmissible ; and Hartmannn and Mr. Broderip concur in rejecting the name. Herrmansen 

 fancifully derives the word from ftovXtftos, ingens fames, in allusion, I presume, to the voracity of the 

 animal. The name Bulimus, however, whatever may be its origin or meaning, appears to be generally 

 adopted, and I have therefore retained it. 



f Mr. Lovell Reeve, "On the Geographical Distribution of the Bulimi," &c, 'Ann. and Mag. of Nat. 

 Hist.,' 2d ser., vol. vii, p. 241. 



